


All the King's Horses

by Niori



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Frigga's A+ Parenting, Gen, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, Someone in Asgard gets a clue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 04:55:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18439466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niori/pseuds/Niori
Summary: Just because Odin refused to learn anything from his mistakes with Hela didn't mean Heimdall hadn't.





	All the King's Horses

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure where this came from, other than watching Thor 1 & 2 in the wake of 3 makes you really see things in a new light.
> 
> Basically, Heimdall turns out to be the smartest person on Asgard.

Heimdall had guarded Asgard since the time of Bor. He had his place just before Odin had taken the throne, after the king fell on the battlefield of Vanaheim. He had watched over the realm and its people through their wars and conquests and then when they named themselves protectors and tried to wipe away the bloodshed. He said nothing as he watched, merely did as he was commanded. No one asked his opinion, just asked him to tell the position of enemies or requests to spy.

He watched as the king shaped his daughter into the ultimate weapon and then reacted with shock when he found he couldn’t force her to be the peaceful princess he then wanted her to be. He saw the moment Odin realized he would never control his daughter again, and then banished her to the realm of the unworthy dead, calling her queen to attempt to soften the blow. He watched Hela as isolation and betrayal took away whatever was left of her humanity. The Queen of the Dead changed having bloodlust for the glory of Asgard, to directing her rage into plotting vengeance. She had already been turned into a monster, but before she was at least a loyal one. That was no more.

He pitied the chained Odindottir, thought it would have been a better fate to put a sword in her hand, give her a good death, and send her soul onto Valhalla. The Allfather would rather cause her more suffering but call it mercy than to dirty his hands. He would have them all forget his sins while he waved away his guilt.

It was not Heimdall’s place to question his king’s choices. He would protect his laws and rules. He was to guard the Realm Eternal and obey its king. When he saw that the Allfather had learned nothing from Hela, however, he wouldn’t allow himself to just watch. Heimdall could not go against his king, but he did not have to be silent while the mistakes of the past repeated themselves.

Loki stood before him, fidgeting and twisting his hands while trying to hide his nervousness. He failed spectacularly, but it was a strong effort. Given the prince’s penchant for mischief, Heimdall thought lying was a skill Loki would do best to learn.

Eventually, the child blurted out, “It’s not going to be permanent! The dye will wash out! Don’t tell Father!”

Heimdall held back a laugh and kept it from his expression, “Calm yourself My Prince. This isn’t about your brother’s pink hair.”

It was amusing, how the boy managed to look relieved and yet smirk at the same time, “Then why did you call me here?” Now that his fears were soothed, the prince’s natural curiosity was making itself known.

“It has been quite some time since you came to me with your questions about the realms.”

For as long as Loki had understood the power Heimdall wielded, he had made his way to the bifrost to ask question after question about whatever subject was on his mind. Unlike so many, he was rarely intimidated by Heimdall’s presence. Heimdall did not mind it when he came, even when he was doing everything in his childish power to make him blink.

Loki’s head tilted to the side, “Father told me I was to stop bothering you.”

Heimdall clamped down on his negative words, “You are no bother My Prince.”

“That’s what I said!’ Loki burst out, all but throwing up his hands in frustration, “Who else do you have to talk to?” He threw his hands over his month when he realized what he had said.

Heimdall took no offense, “You had many questions about the realms, but I realized you have left one of them out- Jotunheim.”

“Why would I have need to ask about a realm of monsters?”

Heimdall had watched as Odin took his sons through the vault and told of the end of the war with Jotunheim, saying nothing of how it started by Jotunheim following Asgard’s example. He saw the oldest prince declare he would slay the monsters while Odin made no move to correct them, only pitted his sons against each other in the competition for Asgard’s throne. Even before then, he had watched as the parents of Asgard turned the Jotun into monsters to scare their children with. Neither the king or queen made any move to stop such talk, made only a small effort to keep such things from the ears of their hidden Frost Giant son.

Heimdall could not see the future, but he did know that secrets never stayed buried forever. If nothing was done, then the prince would not take any reveal well. If Loki turned out to be anything like Hela, many more would suffer with him. More than that, Heimdall had no desire to see this bright-eyed child hurt because his father was too proud to admit to his mistakes and change.

“Not monsters My Prince, merely other people.”

“But we went to war with them!”

“We’ve been to war with many peoples,” more than Loki could possibly know, “We do not call the Vanir monsters.”

“That’s different,” Loki said, but he was confused now. Had he ever had reason to question what Asgard had presented him as truth before now? “The Frost Giants attacked Midgard.”

“You cannot blame an entire realm for the actions of their king and generals. If your father were to march on another world, would you think every Asgardian responsible for it?”

“Father would never!” Loki replied, indigent. Heimdall let it go, aware he was getting very close to speaking treason, “Besides, what could you possibly tell me of Jotunheim that’s interesting?”

“Their magic was renowned throughout the realms. The ice mages of Jotunheim were a powerful sight to behold,” it meant that Loki would be one too, once he honed the skills he was beginning to develop. Ice mages were always small for a giant.

Loki’s eyes lit up, “Magic? The frost giants had magic?”

“All of them could conjure the ice, but only those chosen by the Mother could receive the magic of Jotunheim.”

“Mother?” Loki had forgotten all talk of monsters and war as he sat down at Heimdall’s feet, legs crossed and eyes excited.

“She is how the Jotun came to be. Do you wish to hear the story?” Loki nodded eagerly, and Heimdall continued.

l.l.l.ll

“You knew.”

Heimdall didn’t bother to look at him as Loki strode into the dome. He didn’t answer either.

“Of course you knew,” Loki’s cackle had an edge of hysteria there, “You know everything.”

Heimdall didn’t need to confirm anything. Loki looked at him, hands twisting and eyes close to wild. Abruptly, he began to pace, turning back and forth sharply as words spilled out of his mouth.

“I wondered why you brought me here that day. I didn’t consider it long, just shrugged my shoulders because who can guess why you do the things you do? I can guess now,” when there was no reply, Loki whirled on him, “Do not be silent! Please!”

He heard the desperation in the Odinson’s voice and saw this for what it was. Both his parents had failed to provide him with suitable answers, and Heimdall was his last resort. If the gatekeeper said nothing, Loki would be left to flounder and possibly drown.

“I knew,” he confirmed, “I did not think it wise to allow you to believe your kind to be monsters.”

Loki had come back to him for weeks after that first time to learn more about Jotunheim, and Heimdall had given him all that made the frost giants great. The prince had been fascinated for a time, before he had been taken in by other subjects and tales of Jotunheim were forgotten. Heimdall could not force the topic on him without creating questions. Asgard did not change, but if Jotunheim was mentioned, Loki never called them monsters. It was all he could do.

“You saw what happened in the vault- was what he said true?”

The tale as Odin told it was true, or at least the truth as Odin believed it. Heimdall doubted some of it -to say a child had been willingly abandoned in a holy temple during a battle, and a prince at that, was far from the most likely answer. Jotunheim prized its mages, but he didn’t know if it was from lies or ignorance why Odin believed it. He didn’t complicate the mess by explaining that, not now, “Yes. What the Allfather said was true.”

“And did he ever explain why?”

“Odin did not see fit to explain himself to me. What his plans were, I do not know. Whatever they might have been, they crumbled when the Queen held you in her arms. You would be her son and nothing else.”

A smile made its way onto Loki’s face, a small wisp of a thing that disappeared before most would have been able to even tell it was there. His face fell again, and now he took to a whisper, “Was that why my father always favoured Thor?”

There was no use offering half-truths now, “He favoured Thor because he was the child who was most like him, not for a lack of love for you,” not everything that Odin showed the world was a lie.

It seemed that Loki was shocked at the honesty. Frigga and Odin would have denied it, maybe had even convinced themselves it wasn’t true, but all Asgard knew that Loki was the second son in more than birth order.

“I…” Loki faltered, regretting the honesty he had gotten. Loki wasn’t only talented at lying to others, but to himself as well, especially when it was a lie he desperately wanted to believe, “I let the Jotun in,” it came out abruptly, followed by a rush of words, “Thor would overreact and Father would see that the fool has no idea what he’s doing! Father did nothing! When I tricked Thor to demanding entrance to Jotunheim to make Father see,” He whirled, eyes blazing, “you were supposed to stop us! You weren’t supposed to let us through!” The last was a shouted accusation.

For once, Heimdall didn’t keep his surprise off his face. He had wondered if it could have been Loki who had a hand in it, but he couldn’t think of a way Loki would accomplish such a thing in secret. Apparently, he had underestimated the sorcerer’s power and drive, “How?” 

For a moment, it looked as though Loki would boast about his accomplishment, but it passed, “Hiding from your Sight took me a long time and forbidden books from Nornheim. Once I found the natural pathways along the branches of Yggdrasil and studied them, it didn’t take me too long to figure out to make my own.”

It was a magical feat that should not be possible. It seemed Heimdall had underestimated Asgard’s second prince as much as everyone else.

Loki looked at his hands, “Ice mages were renowned for their power. Isn’t that what you said?” When Loki looked back up, and there were tears in his eyes, “What am I?”

“You are Loki Odinson, Silvertongue and Liesmith, the God of Mischief. You were born of Jotunheim, a realm once glorious before their king’s hubris, and raised of Asgard. You are a child of two worlds, befitting a shapeshifter. You are whoever you want to be.”

Loki didn’t quite collapse, but he did sit down heavily on the steps of the dais and wrapped his arms around the legs he pulled up to his chest. He looked like a lost boy, not the grown man he had been for centuries. After a pause, Heimdall left his place and sat down beside him. He removed his helmet and waited.

Heimdall had spent too much time trying to stop Loki from falling to let it happen now. He wouldn’t allow him to lose, not now. Loki would not suffer for Odin’s mistakes as his sister did.

“Do you remember, when your brother came here, demanding entrance to Jotunheim so he would defeat the warriors of the north and find where they had hidden their grand treasure?” The princes had barely been of age then, when Thor strode into the bifrost dome and demanded Heimdall send them there, an irritated Loki following him and calling him an idiot.

Loki nodded, “You told him that it was nothing but a story and all he would find was the Jut sea and those commoners who lived there.”

“Do you remember what you said?”

“I told him that Father would be so proud of him for murdering a bunch of innocent fishermen.”

“And earlier, when I told you all if I would not bring you back if it threatened Asgard?”

“We wouldn’t do anything to risk lives, theirs or ours.”

“You did not think the Jotun monsters then. Finding out you are one should not change that.”

Loki said nothing, and Heimdall let him have the silence.

“It was nothing like you described. When you spoke of Jotunheim, it sounded so much…more.”

“It was devastated by war and never recovered. The Jotunheim I told you of was the one before that. It was Jotunheim as it was at its peak.”

“And we did nothing to help them recover. We helped others recover, after our wars were won. Asgard did not cut them off completely to fend for themselves. Why did Father do it to Jotunheim?”

There were many reasons Odin allowed it, and most of them unsavory. Jotunheim was the first to rebel against Asgard’s rule after Odin established it over the Nine. No realm would dare it after. He worried if Jotunheim was restored, Laufey would rise once again to be a threat. It lessened the chance of anyone finding out Odin’s surprise son was a stolen Jotun prince. Then there was the simplest, “Asgard was against it.”

“Let me guess- why waste time restoring a land of monsters?”

“They are not-“ Heimdall stated, but Loki cut him off.

“Monsters, merely people,” Loki smirked, just a little, “I have a good memory Gatekeeper.”

“A clever mind as well. I should hope you put it to good use now.”

Loki was prone to getting lost in his emotions. If he took time to think, if he controlled his emotions for now, he would see the truth. He would be hurt by it, but he wouldn’t destroy himself or others over it.

“Mother has made me king,” he finally said, “she put gungnir in my hands and told me to make Father proud, and that seemed to be the end of that. Half of Father’s council is acting as though they have never dealt with a crisis before and the others are like hounds baying for blood. No one bothered to explain what happened on Jotunheim, so they blame the Jotun and wish to follow through with the war Thor started. None of them seem willing to listen to me. Sif and the Warriors Three have requested I bring Thor back, and I believe they will come to ask you to spend them to retrieve Thor no matter what I rule. I haven’t even spoken to Laufey yet,” he laughed, a bitter and hollow sound, “…I don’t know what to do.”

Odin had never asked for anyone’s advice, so sure he was in his own convictions. Odin’s sons wore their arrogance like a cloak, not quite as convinced as their father but close. It seemed the truth had laid this one low. His king was asking him for advice, and it was his duty to give it.

“Tell the queen mother that the Allfather is well guarded and at present you need her more. She has dealt with Asgard on the brink of war before, but you haven’t. Those councilors will listen to her before an untested king. They won’t respect you now, and you don’t have the time to prove yourself.”

“Remind me to have some councilors flogged after this,” he paused again, and then continued in a smaller voice, “And Thor?”

He noticed emotion in the king’s voice, one did not expect to be there. There was an underlying current of fear under the dread, “Why do you fear him?”

“He wants to slay all the monsters. He massacred them over an insult barely worth getting angry over. He laughed as he killed him. They were nothing to him- not people, merely monsters. Am I not one too?”

Heimdall understood and it saddened him. He had tried to influence Thor as well, with less favourable results. Thor had battle lust to rival that of Hela at her peak, and Odin hadn’t seen fit to taper that either. What saved Thor from Hela’s darkness was that he had a kind heart. It drove him most of all, perhaps because no one tried to destroy that kindness. That did not mean he was willing to listen as the gatekeeper tried to guide him away from Asgard’s prejudices over the years.

“He will never harm you My King. He loves you most of all and will continue to do so no matter what is revealed.”

“You think he would change his mind so suddenly?”

“For you? Without question,” from the instant Thor would learn the truth, his opinion of the frost giants would change. He would no longer call them monsters, would feel guilt for every instance he had in the past. He would do all that he could to make Loki never question his place. He would be clumsy at it and potentially cause more harm than good, but he would try.

“Even if…” Loki trailed off, “…even if it’s true, and I bring Thor back…there will be even fewer people willing to listen to me. Laufey won’t treat with the fool who started war in the first place. There will be calls for me to step aside and everyone will waste time bickering when we should be dealing with Jotunheim.”

“That is true,” Heimdall stayed noncommittal. Loki might need guidance, but he would never find the confidence to rule with wisdom if he didn’t find some answers for himself.

“Mother said Father always does things for a reason. She said it about me, but him sending Thor away…”

Heimdall thought of Hela in Helheim, Loki who had to seek reassurance he wasn’t a monster, and Thor banished to Midgard because no one saw fit to rein him in. Odin was not king and Heimdall did not owe him loyalty any longer, “The Allfather may do everything for a reason, but it is not always the right one.”

“Did Father leave a way for Thor to return?”

“Mjolnir is near him. If he becomes worthy of it, he will attain the power to return.” Worthiness. Given how it had been used before and how ‘worthy’ its previous owner had been, Heimdall found that to be a cruel jest indeed.

“He’ll do it,” there was no doubt in Loki’s voice, “He’s good at grand gestures to prove himself. Is he anywhere close to getting it back?”

Heimdall Looked and saw as an overconfident Thor made his way to the hammer. He was nowhere close to reclaiming it, “No.”

“Then fair or not, he stays there for now. He either proves himself or waits until things with Jotunheim are done. When his friends come, allow them down with a warning they’re there until Thor returns.”

It was a good plan, and one Thor’s friends would take, confident that Thor would be worthy to return immediately. Heimdall predicted it would take more than that.

“You should tell him of what you’ve learned. It will make him work all the harder to come back,” he saw Loki’s flinch, and it seemed his fears were not assuaged, “because he will want to help you, not to cause harm,” Loki did not agree or disagree with the suggestion, “What of Jotunheim?”

“We’d slaughter them, as weak as they are,” there was a small smirk on his face, self-deprecating but there, “and I have no intention of murdering some innocent fishermen.”

For once, Heimdall gave a brief smile in return, “It will make your father proud.”

Loki snorted, “I’m not too concerned with Odin’s pride at the moment. It’s an interesting fact Gatekeeper- nothing bothers a liar more than being lied to.”

It was then that Heimdall let himself feel relief. What he had started that day when he told a child about the magic of another realm, it had come to pass as he wished it would. Loki wasn’t alright, was still fractured and fragile, but he would not break, knowing what he was. Loki would not become another Hela.

Loki got to his feet and straightened. His lost expression was gone, buried beneath the mask of a prince turned king, “If anything changes with either Jotunheim or Thor, inform me immediately.”

“Of course, My King.”

Loki left then and Heimdall took his post. He watched Loki continue down the bifrost and considered him. He did not think Loki would be a good king, not for long. He was a trickster at heart and grew bored easily, and no amount of political savvy could change that. Yet, for now, while Loki had a purpose, Heimdall thought he would be great. For now, Heimdall watched the second Odinson and thought he was a king he could follow.


End file.
